Monday, March 09, 2026
Birth
Lucretius 5.222-227 (tr. A.E. Stallings):
Cyril Bailey ad loc.:
‹Older
A human baby's like a sailor washed up on a beachH.A.J. Munro ad loc.:
By the battering of the surf, naked, lacking the power of speech,
Possessing no means of survival, when first Nature pours
Him forth with birth-pangs from his mother's womb upon Light's shores.
He fills the room up with his sorrowful squalls, and rightly so!
Just think what lies in store for him, Life's full supply of woe.
tum porro puer, ut saevis proiectus ab undis
navita, nudus humi iacet infans indigus omni
vitali auxilio, cum primum in luminis oras
nixibus ex alvo matris natura profudit, 225
vagituque locum lugubri complet, ut aequumst
cui tantum in vita restet transire malorum.
227 restet transire Lact. opif. 3.2 : re et transirest (transire est Q) Ω
